In recent years, research and development have been examined on a nanodot memory which is fabricated by, for example, forming a charge storage layer or the like of a memory cell by using particle substances referred to as nanodots. In order to conduct the research and development on the nanodot memory, there is a need to analyze properties of the nanodots by a physical or chemical analysis method. In the physical analysis method, it is often the case that analytical data is measured by beam measurement or the like, and then the measurement result on an analysis sample is compared with the measurement result on a standard sample which serves as an analysis criterion. However, this type of existing physical analysis method generally supposes that the analysis sample and the standard sample have the analysis target substances of thin films. Therefore, when the existing physical analysis method is applied to the analysis sample including the nanodots as the analysis target substances, there is a possibility of failing to obtain accurate results of the analysis. On the other hand, the chemical analysis method of dissolving the substances to be analyzed is not affected by the shapes of the substances before the dissolution. However, the chemical analysis method cannot be applied to the nanodots containing an element which is difficult to be dissolved like noble metal elements.